Subscription Required every 2 days (Cablevision)

[S1N3ddW17]

I have been plagued with an issue since I first installed my infiniTV almost 2 years ago, which has become more of a problem as I have begun to entertain at my house. My infiniTV works great, tuning all appropriate channels, for about 2-3 days. After that, I get a Subscription Required message on any copy-protected channel I try to tune. A reboot will resolve the issue and I will again be able to tune all my channels, only to have it fail again. I have also found that clearing the channel map in the web interface will eventually get the tuner working again, but it takes about as long as a reboot for it to tune again. This was tolerable when I was only experimenting with WMC, but now that I have replaced my cable box in my living room with the HTPC, it has become quite embarrassing to have to reboot my PC when a show is about to start.

I have had a ticket open with Ceton (#KUC-247-94965) since 10/13/2013. They were initially very helpful and provided me two beta firmware releases to try to resolve the issue, but the results were always the same. I have performed all troubleshooting steps they recommended and provided diagnostic files 11 times. In the interim while this ticket was open, it seems Cablevision pushed out a new firmware for the CableCARD, which my infiniTV was unable to download successfully. After being without TV for 3 weeks, Cablevision dispatched a technician who upgraded my CableCARD firmware with a TiVo, then put it back in the inifiniTV which started working again. I was hopeful the new firmware would resolve my "subscription required" issue, but it was back shortly after the upgrade.

Ceton has now been ignoring my emails since 12/10/2013. It has been over a month without any communication and I am hoping someone on the forum might have some suggestions as to any further steps I can take to have a reliable TV tuner in my living room.

[JohnW248]

Do you have a tuning adapter and SDV in your area? I'm not sure about cablevision and if they use it or not. That can be a cause of this problem if the TA for some reason isn't communicating with the InfiniTV. Do you have a Cisco or Moto card? Since you mentioned the FW update and the Tivo, it sounds like it's a Cisco system and that update was specifically to address a Tivo issue (from what I've been able to find out).

However, your issue might be bad channel maps if all your authorizations are good. Next time try this: Open the Web Gui for your InfiniTV, right click on LOG and open in new tab. In the command box at the bottom left type REBOOT and click send. This will restart the tuner without rebooting the computer. See if this clears the problem. If it does, until you can get a better fix you can reboot the card every three days and see if that prevents the Subscription Required. If you have SDV there can also be issues with USB communications between the tA and the computer and there are ways to make sure that stays "alive".

[S1N3ddW17]

Thanks for the response. I'm not using a TA. I always said I'd get one when I need it but it seems none of the channels I watch require it. You're correct about the Cisco card and I was told the same thing by the Cablevision tech who was finally able to get the firmware upgraded when the infiniTV wouldn't accept it.

I wasn't aware of the reboot command. I just tried this and the channel I was attempting to tune loaded after about a minute. Very helpful workaround! How could I tell if the channel maps are the issue?

[JohnW248]

Well you can't really, there is a command to view the channels on the cableCARD tab but I think your issue might be that the TA is kept more up to date by Cablevision than the internal maps (they are different items and sent differently). Now if you get a TA and connect it and still have a problem all you would have to do is pull the usb cable and reconnect it and it'll force a new channel map download! With the TA diagnostics you'll be able to see this:
SERIAL LINK ANOMALIES
DecodeErr Tx/Rx: 0/0
LastDecErrTxTime: n/a
LastDecErrRxTime: n/a
TxFlowCtrlToggled: 0
Overflow Tx/Rx: 0/0
LastOvFlowTxTime: n/a
LastOvFlowRxTime: n/a
ApduTxEr/OtherEr: 5/0
CHANNEL TABLE HISTORY
Rsp/Upd/Err/Rtx: 26/30/2/0
01/12@11:07:57 Rsp v029 Blks=07
01/12@12:41:35 Rsp v029 Blks=07
01/12@14:17:22 Rsp v029 Blks=07
01/13@03:01:26 Upd v030 Blks=07

New channel map every morning at 3AM, a new one when every you reboot the computer and any time there is a configuration change you'll get a new map and you'll also see when those configuration changes take place:

TUNING ADAPTER
Authorized: Yes
OpStatus: Ready
ChanTblLoadTime: 01/13@03:01:20
HmacKeyGenTime: 01/12@14:17:16
TA CONFIG FILE
LoadTime: 01/13@03:01:16
Version: 01/10@02:18:17 ---last configuration change was 1/10 and that implies channels were moved around.
Size: 9KB
NumChan/Split/Desc: 821/0/3
LastLoadErr: NoErr
LastErrTime: n/a
APDU STATISTICS
Total Tx/Rx: 1042/1433
Status Tx/Rx: 155/654

[blueiedgod]

Thanks for the response. I'm not using a TA. I always said I'd get one when I need it but it seems none of the channels I watch require it. You're correct about the Cisco card and I was told the same thing by the Cablevision tech who was finally able to get the firmware upgraded when the infiniTV wouldn't accept it.

I wasn't aware of the reboot command. I just tried this and the channel I was attempting to tune loaded after about a minute. Very helpful workaround! How could I tell if the channel maps are the issue?

I thought all of Cablevision nodes were SDV.

[S1N3ddW17]

Thanks for the response. I'm not using a TA. I always said I'd get one when I need it but it seems none of the channels I watch require it. You're correct about the Cisco card and I was told the same thing by the Cablevision tech who was finally able to get the firmware upgraded when the infiniTV wouldn't accept it.

I wasn't aware of the reboot command. I just tried this and the channel I was attempting to tune loaded after about a minute. Very helpful workaround! How could I tell if the channel maps are the issue?

I thought all of Cablevision nodes were SDV.

According to this link from Cablevision it's only some subscription international and sports channels (and 3D), none of which I subscribe to.

http://optimum.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/651

[Scallica]

Have you tried replacing the CableCard?

[S1N3ddW17]

Have you tried replacing the CableCard?

Between the subscription required issue and the firmware update failure, I think I'm on my 4th CableCARD now. Every one of them (except one we were never able to get updated) has exhibited the periodic subscription required message only resolved by a reboot or clear channel map.

[JohnW248]

Remember that even if you don't need any of the SDV channels, the system is designed to operate with SDV. All the STB from Cablevision are SDV enabled. If you get the TA you should end your channel map problem since ALL channel requests whether they SDV or Broadcast will come from the TA and it's channel map. If you have a corrupted channel map (which would be a headend problem) you can clear it by power cycling the TA without touching your computer or cableCARD tuner.

I'd suggest you get one and plug it in. Get a two way splitter, don't feed the signal through the TA to the tuner, it's not necessary. Split the signal with one lead to the TA and the other to the tuner. Terminate the output connector on the TA with a 75ohm load. With TWC all that stuff they'll give you at the cable office along with quad shield jumper coax cables.

Try it and see if it solves your problem.

John

[S1N3ddW17]

Ceton has provided me with a new test firmware (dated today) to gather additional logging related to my issue. I will report back with updates.

[haydongreenbutton]

Just to let you know, you're not alone. My father is experiencing something very similar on Cablevision with TiVo. He tells me it doesn't happen with all channels. So far he hasn't spoken to Cablevision about it. He's waiting for the problem to happen again. He had been restarting his TiVo every once every day or two before I urged him to call. Amazing what people will put up with!